In a polygamous society, where does the average Joe find a woman?

Question

Especially in Muslim countries where the important males have several wives, does this create a woman shortage?

Answer 1

"average joe" and polygamy don't mix well.

Answer 2

Though polygamy isn't actually all that widespread in the Middle East, many men will go without wives, and, possibly with unfortunate results.  

Taken from Psychology Today [a bit of a controversial stance]:

"The surprising answer from the evolutionary psychological perspective is that Muslim suicide bombing may have nothing to do with Islam or the Koran (except for two lines in it). It may have nothing to do with the religion, politics, the culture, the race, the ethnicity, the language, or the region. As with everything else from this perspective, it may have a lot to do with s*x, or, in this case, the absence of s*x.

What distinguishes Islam from other major religions is that it tolerates polygyny. By allowing some men to monopolize all women and altogether excluding many men from reproductive opportunities, polygyny creates shortages of available women. If 50 percent of men have two wives each, then the other 50 percent don't get any wives at all.

So polygyny increases competitive pressure on men, especially young men of low status. It therefore increases the likelihood that young men resort to violent means to gain access to mates. By doing so, they have little to lose and much to gain compared with men who already have wives. Across all societies, polygyny makes men violent, increasing crimes such as murder and rape, even after controlling for such obvious factors as economic development, economic inequality, population density, the level of democracy, and political factors in the region. "

This is a problem that is affecting both China and India as well.  From the Washington Post:

"We have already seen in China the resurrection of evils such as the kidnapping and selling of women to provide brides for those who can pay the fee. Scarcity of women leads to a situation in which men with advantages -- money, skills, education -- will marry, but men without such advantages -- poor, unskilled, illiterate -- will not. A permanent subclass of bare branches from the lowest socioeconomic classes is created. In China and India, for example, by the year 2020 bare branches will make up 12 to 15 percent of the young adult male population. "

Answer 3

This is why people go to the Philippines. Plenty of available women there for people.